I'm wandering through the "Intimate Lesson with Tony Rice" DVD and noticed something that I wanted to get some feedback on.

Take your standard even 1/8th note picking sequence, 4/4 time, no hammer-ons, no pull-offs, each note gets a pick a stroke. I noticed that when Tony does it, he doesn't always do D/U/D/U. He'll be going along and then do two down on adjacent eighth notes, and then on to the rest. Or he might do two up strokes on two adjacent eighth notes. Is this just a thing that he does? Reason I ask is that there are times when I find myself "wanting" to do this, but I try to get myself to stick with the straight D/U/D/U pattern, where downs are always on the quarter-note downbeats, and if a hammer or pulloff comes along then I compensate for it as thought I'd picked it. You probably know what I mean.

Lemme know what you think - thanks!
Doug

While I'm only a mediocre flat picker and have no claim of expertise, I have studied Mr. Rice's picking style from the DVDs, and noticed the same as you.

It was painful, but I tracked and wrote down every stroke in "Gold Rush," and here is my observation: He uses the up or down strokes to facilitate getting from string to string. Often, a descending run will begin on an up-stroke on the first beat.

For example, suppose you're playing a G open on the 3rd string, followed by E and D on the 4th string, followed by B and A on the 5th string, followed by G on the 6th string. By beginning with an up stroke, the pick is moving toward the lower string whenever the string changes. This also seems to reduce pick movement

The easy part is observing it. The hard part is understanding how he can have such fluidity and ease in incorporating all this in the music he makes, on the spur of the moment. But, that's why he is Tony Rice, and we are not.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Alex Z,

Doug,

Based on my limited experience, this is common to Tony and his brother Wyatt, and a few other flatpickers. Tony and Wyatt commonly play two downs and one up when crosspicking across three strings, and three downs and one up when crosspicking across four strings, even when playing pretty fast. I was at a workshop a few years back, where Wyatt was saying that he thinks the more down strokes you include, the more powerful your playing. So I guess, when you have the skill to do it, it gives you another color in your palette. I practice this sometimes, but I can't begin to accomplish it cleanly at anything approaching bluegrass speed.
My two cents......

B

Doug -

I believe it's even more fundamental than the others describe here. Tony's abilities (not just technique) are so evolved that he is simply able to express his musical ideas in the best way available without any consideration for the rules of technique that guide the rest of us. In interviews, I've heard him pretty much scoff (but not at all condescendingly) at the the thought of being constrained by any preordained set of rules. I think a lot of flatpicking teachers have students start with DUDU because it helps them retain the unique pulse of bluegrass when they start to play things with syncopations; otherwise, the rests can throw them off and they might be playing the right notes in the right places, but it doesn't swing. At some point, many people start to deviate when it's convenient.

When I play electric guitar, I use a very unorthodox three-finger (and occasionally four-finger) picking approach that evolved from learning Mark Knopfler and Mississippi John Hurt songs and then pedal steel licks on a Tele (don't ask...). I could never explain or transcribe the way I play electric guitar, but it works for me and I'm sure I never play the same thing the same way twice. For that reason (and only that reason!!!), I can relate to Tony's approach.

David